


Just Do It

by Denois



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Coming Out, Established Relationship, Fluff, Jeff Troy POV, M/M, Social Media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24592381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Denois/pseuds/Denois
Summary: Kent Parson and Jeff Troy are well known in the hockey community for their close friendship and intense sponsorship rivalry, so when Jeff Troy is spotted at a local breakfast hot spot wearing the wrong sponsor's clothes, fans on Twitter waste no time speculating about it. Confirming or denying various rumors should be an easy decision for two closeted professional athletes, but Jeff thinks that maybe it's time to have a conversation he's been putting off.Should Kent and Jeff come out to the public? If so, how should they do it?
Relationships: Kent "Parse" Parson/Jeff "Swoops" Troy
Comments: 16
Kudos: 211
Collections: OMGCP Reverse Bang 2020





	Just Do It

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this awesome gif set board by Pwoops!](https://pwoops.tumblr.com/post/620290032740319232/just-do-it-by-denois-kent-parson-and-jeff-troy-are)
> 
> Big thanks to [Draskireis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/draskireis) for the beta read. 
> 
> Also huge thanks to [Korechthonia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/korechthonia) for helping me with hockey twitter handles to use.
> 
> Please know that while I spent a lot of time looking up restaurants and appropriate areas for Aces to live, I have never been in the state of Nevada at all, so I cannot actually back up any claims about how good restaurants featured in this fic may be.

> @PartiHarti  
>  Just saw @JeffTroy14 at Rachel’s Kitchen.  
>  [Img]

> @naughtyboybox  
>  He can check me any day.

> @4goalcomeback  
>  you idiot, not all tall attractive men in Vegas are Aces. Swoops reps Adidas. Not Nike.

> @2muchmen  
>  Maybe he’s wearing his bf’s shirt.

> @TheKentParse  
>  Yeah @JeffTroy14 you can’t just steal my shirts to keep people from knowing it’s you.

> @missing_tooth  
>  Wait, was it actually Swoops?

> @2muchmen  
>  Swoops stealing Parse’s shirt, because they’re bfs! So cute

> @intric8rituals  
>  Swoops, don’t take your hubby’s shirt without asking!

> @TheKentParse  
>  @JeffTroy14 if you want to switch, I can hook you up with my rep.

> @phwuckmeup  
>  Did Parse seriously just confirm that Swoops is a switch?

> @intric8rituals  
>  Putting his hubby on blast!

> 5forchirping  
>  No. Jeff can’t drop adidas for nike. I just updated my wardrobe.

* * *

_That morning_

Jeff woke up in Kent Parson’s bed. With Kent Parson’s cat curled up against his head. And Kent Parson curled up beside him.

None of that was especially concerning. It was, actually, perfectly normal. 

What was not normal, and was concerning, was how late he woke up. It still wouldn’t have been a problem, but he’d planned on surprising Kent with breakfast. And he didn’t plan on it being homemade. Not that he couldn’t fry up eggs or make a mean french toast, but, well, holding his own in a kitchen or not, there was a reason Jeff Troy was a professional hockey player, not a professional chef.

Besides, Kent loved the Peanut Butter Blast smoothie from Rachel’s Kitchen, so it made sense to take advantage of the great breakfast selections as well. It didn’t hurt that Jeff was rather fond of the Incredible Hulk smoothie himself. 

So, quickly, and quietly so Kent wouldn’t wake up prematurely, Jeff slid out of bed and into clothes. He was out the door and in his car in less than ten minutes, having successfully only woken Kit up enough to earn an annoyed “murr” before she went back to sleep. Kent hadn’t even twitched.

Jeff was a pro at keeping a low profile, if he did say so himself. He wasn’t flashy, like Kent, basking in the spotlight. And while he carried his weight on the team, he wasn’t smashing records like Kent. And ultimately, Vegas was a desert city built on glam and glitter. It wasn’t a hockey city, but it cared about superstars. It cared about Kent, and Jeff was beneath its notice. 

Four Clippers follow him on Twitter, but in the morning rush at Rachel’s Kitchen, he was just another face in the crowd. He would absolutely never tell Kent (because Kent would never let him hear the end of it if he did), but there was a kind of peace in anonymity in a crowd. 

Or maybe he was just trying to convince himself that it was fine that he’d slept in and missed the brief period when they first opened and weren’t too busy. Still, even with the extra wait and the extra crowd, he was pretty sure that he avoided attention and that he’d make it back to Kent’s place before Kent woke up.

He was, sadly, mistaken.

* * *

Kent was sitting on the sofa when he returned, quietly playing with Kit. He didn’t say anything until Jeff walked into the room with the food, then spoke without looking up. “Kit and I thought we were past our days of waking up alone when we hadn’t gone to sleep that way. Didn’t we, Precious?” He switched to a high pitched baby talk voice for the second sentence as he spoke to the cat.

Jeff held the Peanut Butter Blast smoothie in front of Kent’s face until he focused on it. “Will I be forgiven if I plead that I only abandoned you so I could return bearing gifts?”

Kent snatched the drink from his hands and took a long sip before responding again. “This will make up for that. What are you going to give me for waking up to my boyfriend causing a twitter scandal first thing in the morning by wearing my shirt to go buy what was obviously food for two during the morning rush?”

Jeff blinked and then looked down at his shirt. Kent’s shirt. “Why was this on my side of the closet? What’s the point of me having a side of the closet at your place if you’re going to fill it with Nike stuff?” 

He set the rest of the food down on the coffee table and stripped the offending shirt off, tossing it at Kent in retaliation for invading his part of the closet.

“Hmm, you make an interesting offer.” Kent paused to waggle his eyebrows at him and give him a look over. “But I’m not sure it will stop you from trending on twitter.”

Kent had already shifted most of his attention to digging into the bags of food, so Jeff pulled out his phone and dropped onto the seat next to him to check the damage.

“Ok, I’m not sure I get all the blame for this when you stepped in to say I stole your shirt.”

Kent didn’t respond, which was a good thing since his mouth was full of food.

Further down his twitter mentions, he found the original picture. It wasn’t actually that good of a picture, slightly blurry and from an odd angle, at a distance. Which made sense, since no one had stopped him to ask for a selfie or something more clear. 

“This is barely recognizable as me. They probably would have talked themselves out of believing it was me.”

“Do you want to deny it, then?” Kent’s voice was even and when Jeff looked up, he was examining his breakfast.

There was a line between lying to protect a closeted relationship and lying to deny someone. Jeff was well aware of the line, and he knew that both of them had had partners in the past who ended up in the second category, even though they’d never shared particulars to avoid outing others. 

It was no question, really. Jeff would never out Kent, but he wasn’t going to treat Kent like a dirty little secret to be used in private and discarded when inconvenient.

“No. I might have ignored it if it had wound itself down. But I’m not going to deny that’s me or that it’s your shirt.”

A barely discernible stiffness eased in Kent’s shoulders and face. “Well, you’ll just have to go around town doing a variety of embarrassing things. Then we can announce that you lost a bet to me and this was all part of the terms.”

“So, no ideas on how to spin this that don’t involve embarrassing me?”

Kent pretended to look thoughtful for a moment. “No. Your dignity is the price you are going to have to pay on this one.” 

It didn’t actually take long to get through breakfast. And contrary to his earlier threats, Kent hadn’t yet produced a list of embarrassing things for Jeff to go be seen doing in public. Instead, they were lounging on the giant, very comfortable, sofa, with Kent’s head in Jeff’s lap and Kit on Kent’s chest. It was cozy. It was nice. It was...time for Jeff to bring up something he’d been thinking about for awhile.

All the times he’d thought about having this conversation and he still hadn’t thought of a good way to start it.

So, of course, Kent handed him an opening. 

“You should wear my shirts more often.” He was looking up at Jeff which could not have been a flattering angle, but he was grinning lewdly. 

It made Jeff pause. “Do you _want_ to come out as a couple?”

The responding eye roll had no right to be adorable, but it was. “I just meant around the house, for me.”

“I mean, with the-”

“I was just teasing them. Getting them riled up. Most of them will drop it if you don’t confirm and the ones who don’t drop it…” He trailed off and shifted minutely to avoid upsetting Kit. “They’re the ones who already had their minds made up and wanted to believe it anyway.”

“No, I mean….” Jeff trailed off with a sigh. They’d had conversations before, about being closeted professional athletes and their plans for their careers and the closet. They’d had many of those conversations over the years, actually. “You know that I’m happy being with you like this. I think, I’m sure, actually, that I want to be with you forever, or at least the foreseeable future and I’m ok if we aren’t on paper somewhere or only our families know. I don’t need more than that. I’m happy.”

Kent grinned. “I’m happy with you, too. And, actually, I was kind of thinking the same thing. About the ‘forever, or at least the foreseeable future’ stuff.”

Jeff smoothed the cowlick on Kent’s forehead down and felt it feather back up immediately under his fingers. “I just want to make sure you know. I know how you feel about hockey and I know that right now you are tearing up the history books to replace all the records with just your name. And I know how it’s gone for other professional athletes that have come out while still playing majors, or before being drafted even. So, I’m happy with us being between us.”

“Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming?”

“Because you’re obsessed with butts.” He avoided Kent’s attempt to reach up and flick him. “But, I don’t want you to think we have to stay closeted on my account. I know that I don’t have your star power and list of records, so I’m a lot more likely than you to end up as a motivational speaker or used car salesman if it doesn’t go well. I’m ok with that, too. Just. Whenever you’re ready to come out, I’m with you. Whether that’s today or in fifty years or never.”

“Really? Even though they might drop you?”

Jeff shrugged. “I can downsize from my place in Southern Highlands. And Jen’s been helping me manage my money. Got most of it in some of those low risk-low yield bonds and stuff. I wouldn’t be living a rock star lifestyle, but I could manage.” He paused and grinned. “Could really WAG it up.”

“Wait. Jen? Your sister?”

“The very same.”

“Why has she been giving you investment advice?”

“Because she’s an accountant? Which is probably the reason why it’s all low risk stuff.” 

“No. I mean, why hasn’t she been helping me manage my investments?”

Jeff looked down at Kent quizzically. “I mean, we’re dating, so it might be a conflict of interest to handle both our money or something.”

Kent huffed and turned his head slightly. “She could have at least referred me to someone she knows.”

The jump in topic was only slightly disconcerting. It happened sometimes with Kent. Only sometimes intentionally. “Are you getting sidetracked about investments because you don’t want to talk about coming out? Because I can drop it.”

“No. I just can’t believe Jen didn’t hook me up, too.” 

Kent went quiet for a moment and then gently lifted Kit so that he could sit up and turn to face Jeff. He ended up with his legs across Jeff’s and Kit ended up deciding she was going to find a less movable place to nap. Probably some place with a sunbeam.

“I mean, do I want to be able to be myself with you even in public and not worry about people saying something or having to lie and say we aren’t together? Yes. Do I like seeing you wearing my clothes in public and being able to say, ‘yeah, that’s Jeff Troy in _my_ shirt. Eat your heart out everyone else.’? Yeah. A whole lot actually. Learned that about me today.”

He paused and grinned at Jeff again, then placed a hand on Jeff’s chest. “Though, this is good, too.”

“Kent.”

“Right. Focus. I guess I just don’t know what coming out looks like for me. I don’t want to have a press conference and be like ‘Hi, I’m Kent Parson, and I’m gay.’ You know? And I don’t want it to come up suddenly at a team thing. I guess, I just don’t want it to be something that makes _everything_ be about me, and us, and our sexualities. Braids got married last season and didn’t even tell anyone until months later and it was super casual. Something like that would be nice.”

Jeff stared at his boyfriend. “I definitely expected you to suggest that we just put a video of us making out on tiktok. Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?”

“Haha. So funny. Can you imagine just springing that on team management like that? It would be hilarious. But also, Amber from PR would legit kill me. No, seriously, why do you think I’ve been so well behaved the last couple of years?”

“My stellar influence.”

“Well, that. But also, Amber took me out into the desert and started telling me about old mob hits and talking about how many people have never been found.”

Jeff started laughing. He couldn’t help it. 

“Sure, I tell you that I’m in fear for my life because of credible threats against it, and you laugh.”

“Isn’t she like four foot ten?”

“I can’t believe this heightism from my own boyfriend. You should know that smaller bodies hold more danger.”

“Come here.” Jeff wrapped his arm tighter around Kent’s shoulders to pull him in and press their lips together. “I’ll protect you from Amber. By helping you resist your more outlandish impulses.”

“My hero.”

“It’s what I’m here for. It’s why you love me.”

“True. Well that and-” 

Jeff broke off the lewd comment he was sure was about to follow by kissing Kent again. This time it was slightly longer, a way to acknowledge that “and-” was something he loved too, but keeping them from getting derailed even more.

After they broke apart, Kent settled against the side of Jeff’s chest, getting comfortable. “So, I guess the first step is coming out to team management. They can’t get too mad if they’re warned ahead of time, right?”

“Yeah. What we do after that will kind of depend on how that goes. Let’s do it. Let’s call them and find out if this is about to become a long distance relationship.” He reached over for his phone where he’d set it aside so that he could make the call before he lost his nerve. 

This was something he wanted. He was sure of that. He’d thought about it from every angle for weeks, months even. But now that it was actually happening, the worries were returning. He took a deep breath. It would be fine. Worst case, he’d retire a bit early, like he’d joked about earlier.

Kent’s hand was warm as it covered his, guiding the phone away from Jeff’s ear until it was between them. Kent moved to press the button, setting it to speaker phone. It made sense, they were in this together, doing this together, there was no need for Jeff to start the conversation alone. 

The phone only rang a few times before the call connected to the GM, Morgan. “Jeff! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you today.”

The words were heavy with unspoken questions. Kent spoke up before Jeff had the chance.

“Hey Morg. It’s both of us actually.”

“Oh. Well. That’s, that’s great, Parse.”

“We were calling to tell you that we’re gay. Well. I’m gay, Jeff’s bi.” 

Jeff rolled his eyes. “The point is, we’re in a relationship.”

“Oh. Oh, well okay. I don’t know what I expected you to be calling me about but it wasn’t that. Well, let’s see. Were you wanting to come out then? Do you want me to get a press conference set up? I don’t know if we could do it today, but I can alert PR and the media group.”

“Actually, no. We don’t want a press conference or anything. Just, we don’t want to have to hide around the team and stuff. So, whoever in the office you think needs to know, feel free to tell them.”

“And we’d like to tell the team ourselves-“ Jeff paused for a moment to look at Kent and make sure he agreed. At Kent’s small nod, he continued, “but we’d appreciate it if you backed us up on it.”

“Of course. Of course. However you boys want to handle it.”

“And Morgy?” Kent’s voice was dangerously sweet. “If you’re currently thinking about where you might trade Jeff, make sure you get a _real_ good deal, because I’ll be going, too.”

“Of course I wasn’t. But, I feel I should remind you, Kent, your contract does have a no trade clause.”

“I’m not going to play against my husband. If you trade him, I go with, or I’ll take an early retirement.”

Morgan sighed. “Seriously Kent, Jeff, we are happy with both of your work on this team and where we have been building the team for another possible cup run. I’m not going to change that just because you two came out to me. I’m kind of assuming that it’s not a new relationship, so me knowing isn’t going to change your dynamic on the ice. I’ll make sure everyone knows that we have a zero tolerance policy on hate speech and bigotry. I’ll support you however you two want to handle it.”

Jeff looked at Kent and raised his eyebrows. That was about as good as he could have hoped for it to go. He wasn’t really sure where to go from there.

“We appreciate that Morgan. One last thing. We’ll be sharing a room on roadies from here on, too.”

Jeff sighed at Kent’s grin. It wasn’t like they couldn’t just keep going to one or the other’s room regardless of room assignments. But, well, it would save the team a little money and make it easier on the hotels, he guessed.

“Of course. Sure thing.”

They wrapped up the call after that and Jeff dropped the phone on the seat of the couch beside him, letting his head fall back as well, once the call disconnected.

“Ok. That’s step one down. You need a breather before step two?”

Jeff rolled his head back up so he could look at Kent. “I think we have to figure out what exactly step two is before we can do step two.”

“I thought we already figured that out? Step one is tell team management. Step two is tell everyone else.”

“And how are we going to do that? You didn’t want a grand big announcement. And before you suggest it again, I do think that making out on tiktok counts as a grand big announcement.”

Kent frowned. “Oh. I don’t have any other ideas. Are you sure we can’t do it that way?”

He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “We can if you really want to. You should just know that it’s not subtle and Amber _will_ still be mad at you for not doing a press conference first.”

“Damn.”

Jeff hummed in the affirmative.

Kit decided to take that moment and jump back on the couch, but rather than sitting with them, she pawed at the shirt Jeff had discarded earlier and then curled up in it.

“Do you think she’s sleeping on it because it’s your shirt? Does she know it’s her dad’s shirt even though I wore it last?”

“She loves both her dads.” There was a pause and then Kent turned back to face Jeff with a grin. “And I think it’s time she told the world that.”

* * *

Jeff didn’t remember why Adidas had given him the cat sized track suit. He was just glad that it fit Kit and she seemed to not mind wearing it and posing while Kent took a truly absurd number of pictures to get just the right shot. 

The image that he uploaded to instagram for user account Kit Purrson and the caption “I love and support both my dads. #FelineStyle #NHLPrincess #KentParson #JeffTroy”

That finished, Kent looked up at Jeff and raised his eyebrows. “Was there a step three?”

“Do you think that covers step two?

It was Kent’s turn to shrug. “Anyone who doesn’t get it from that doesn’t deserve to know. They should be following Kit on insta.”

“Then I think step three involves whatever we want to do with the rest of the evening.”

“Step three is my favorite step.”

**Author's Note:**

> Parswoops isn't my usual ship, but this was fun. If you want to yell at me about it on tumbls, you can find me at [SexyDexyNurse](https://sexydexynurse.tumblr.com/).


End file.
